Henson and Hill speak to the media

The Trib (Dave Matter): Henson: "I have my own ideas."
The Trib (Dave Matter): Hill: "It's an exciting challenge for me."
The Trib (Dave Matter): Does experience matter for SEC coordinators?
The Missourian: Missouri names Henson offensive coordinator, Hill associate head coach
KC Star: Mizzou officially makes Josh Henson new offensive coordinator
Post-Dispatch: Henson promoted to offensive coordinator
PowerMizzou: Mizzou confirms coaching shuffle
PowerMizzou: Familiar faces discuss new roles
Mizzou Network: 1 on 1 with Mizzou offensive coordinator Josh Henson
Mizzou Network: 1 on 1 with Mizzou Assoc. Head Coach Andy Hill

#ALLOFTHEDGBSCREENS RT @dave_matter: Henson on #Mizzou offense: "The No. 1 thing is we've got to put the ball in our playmakers' hands."

— Rock M Nation (@rockmnation) December 18, 2012

New Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Henson didn't really say anything to the press yesterday, but he kind of did. Here's what we can gather from the quotes below:

1. Henson is a confident guy.
2. Mizzou is not going to stop throwing the ball.
3. Henson's spread, like Yost's, will be dictated by the personnel on hand.
4. He's been dreaming of becoming an offensive coordinator for quite a while.

Like I said, not a ridiculous amount of substance, really ... but Henson is clearly a bright, confident coach with his own ideas, and he won't be overwhelmed by the brighter spotlight.

From the Trib:

"Do I think you can win run a pro-I" formation? "Sure. Do I think you can win running the spread? Sure," he said. "Listen, the smart play in offensive football is this: It's figuring out what your skill set can do and putting those guys on the field in something they do well and running those plays and putting them in position to win. If we've got a bunch of 275-pound tight ends and they all run 5-flat" in the 40-yard dash, "and we go, 'We're going spread,' then everybody thinks I'm an idiot, right? But we don't. We've got a bunch of very fast, great wide receivers. We've got one of the deepest receiving corps I've seen. So shouldn't we put those guys on the field to make plays? We should."

"Everyone who sits in this chair is going to have a different personality of what they do and what they believe in for certain situations at certain times," he added. "For me, to go into how it's going to be different right now, a little bit of the truth is, it's going to be based on how our personnel does in spring football and who we see really coming on and how they lean on things. The flip side is I don’t really want to say how it's going to be different. I just want people to see it and judge me from there."

From the KC Star:

Henson repeated, quite often, that over the last 20 years or so, he’s found himself sitting in coaching booths, next to some of the brightest offensive minds college football has to offer: Les Miles, Mike Gundy, Jimbo Fisher, Gary Crowton. And yes, Henson says, that list includes David Yost, the man he is replacing in a quest to revive Missouri’s once-vaunted spread attack.

"Through all that experience, you get to see how guys think and how they approach certain situations and different calls," Henson said. ‘I’ve seen all kinds of different offenses, and at the end of the day, it’s about figuring out what your guys can do and figuring out ways to put them in position to do that."

Today’s announcement was the culmination of a lifelong journey for Henson, who says he’s always been fascinated by the strategic part of the game — and has the stories to prove it.

"My mom caught me drawing football plays on a table when I was eight years old," Henson said. "I’ve always been into the X’s and O’s part of the game. It’s just something that’s been in my heart and soul to do for a long time."

From the Post-Dispatch:

"The No. 1 thing you have to do is put the ball in your playmakers’ hands and get it to them consistently," Henson said. "However we do that, I don’t care. But we have to find who are the guys that can make a difference in the game and get the ball in their hands."

From PowerMizzou:

As for exactly what spin Henson will bring to the Tiger offense next season, he preferred to keep people guessing.

"Well, if I'm smart, why would I tell you that, right? Why would I tell everybody what we're gonna do next year?" Henson said with a smile. "The truth is we are a certain way and everybody knows this. You just look at our personnel and our roster, that's who we are. Even if we wanted to change that, that will take time to change and I'm not saying that we do want to change it. I have my own ideas about what we're gonna do on offense, I have my own philosophies about things that I want to do. Will there be things different than what we've done? Yes, but I also think that there's value--and I don't think people can discount this--that there's value in the kids being familiar with a system and names and terms and some of those things. You've got to make sure that you mesh those ideas together."

Meanwhile, here's what we know about Andy Hill from his quotes:

1. He wanted the offensive coordinator job.
2. He is an incredible team player.
3. He did still get a solid promotion.

From the Trib:

"The quarterbacks spend a lot of time working on their fundamentals, the depth of their stance, how you want to play-fake, how you want to carry out fakes, how you want to read defenses, how you do protections," Hill said. "That will be something I'll just retrain myself and count on my skills and count on the guys I know that I can improve what I'm doing. It's an exciting challenge for me because we do have a bunch of playmakers coming back. If you utilize the playmakers, the quarterback's just a dealer. He's getting the ball to the guys to make plays. When you do that, that's how our offense is working best."

Hill said he plans to consult several quarterbacks coaches as he retrains himself on coaching the position, including the QB coach he's succeeding, David Yost.

"The fundamentals of the quarterback position are like no other on the field," he said. "Whether you're talking about pre-snaps reads or drops or when you want to be behind the right tackle when you roll out, whatever it might be, there'll be things that I know inherently, but it won't be as quick to me as" coaching "receiver was because I've done it for 17 years. But I do have confidence in my abilities to learn those fundamentals very quickly. There's a lot of volumes of great quarterback coaches that you can talk to and you can reference to, Coach Yost being one of them. I'm looking forward to expanding my knowledge of the quarterback position. Really, the fundamentals, getting your footwork and your feet set and reading defenses, is really key to the guy doing the right thing behind the center."

Dave Matter mentioned mid-day yesterday that when Henson began to talk to the media more, some of the naysayers who had already determined this was an awful hire by Sunday afternoon would calm down a bit, that he's a confident, charismatic guy. I would assume that, as winter bleeds into spring, a lot of those bad feelings will at least temporarily dissipate. I would also assume that Josh Henson might bring a decent amount of change to the table. And again, he will have some really fun pieces to work with come spring.