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WITH ROB CHUDZINSKI By Steven Drummond

When and why did you choose to get into coaching?

I had an opportunity to be a graduate assistant back at the University of Miami and I had played there and had been there around those guys and had really, matter of fact graduated and missed playing and being around the guys in the locker room and all that kind of thing. It started as just finding out what coaching is all about. I never really had thought I would be a coach when I was younger or in college or any of those types of things. I ended up enjoying it and it’s kind of gone from there.

Where do you see the League moving as far as offensive trends?

I think a couple of the things as you look at high schools and colleges, are the offenses that they’re playing and the style of the systems being spread, and those are the type of players who you are drafting now

from college. I think adjusting to those styles is helpful, and you see some of those things carrying over into the pros.

Is it frustrating to see the quarterback under center fake the snap and turn and look to the sideline for the play call every single play?

Not really. I mean for a purist it would be, but the game is constantly evolving. It’s interesting, you see a lot of things that maybe 20 years ago people were doing come back, and it’s just a cycle of things and an evolution, and I find that really interesting.

What’s the main difference in the game from now and when you played?

I think that everything has improved from that time when I played. The players are bigger, are stronger, are faster; they’re phenomenal athletes playing the game. I think the coaching, I think the systems

are more refined than back when I was playing. It’s a year-round career. You have to prepare yourself at all times year-round mentally and physically.

Did you have pro aspirations when he played?

Sure. I just wasn’t quite good enough.

How has this off season has been different from last year?

It’s been good. We’ve had the opportunity to go back to basics and start over from scratch. So much of last season was a blur in that we were putting things in, and you can’t always explain why. Every in and out about what you’re doing. You just don’t have the time to do it, but now you have more time. I think the guys’ understanding of what we are trying to do in the system has been enhanced greatly in this offseason and going through OTA’s and training camp again.

Offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski begins his second season with the team after helping the Panthers offense move from last in the League in points scored to fifth and from 32nd in total offense to seventh. He recently discussed with Roar his thoughts on last year and some of the challenges the offense and quarterback Cam Newton will face in the coming season.

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What were your expectations, based on what you saw in the preseason, going into the opening game last year?

I think that last season, we really evolved as the season went on. Going into training camp, I might have had a picture in my mind of what we were going to do and what we were going to be. And then as training camp went on, seeing the guys do things for the first time, I started molding some ideas or some thoughts on the direction we would go with the offense, and then in the game, it changes. I think as you look at us and the evolution through the season, we grew into what we became more towards the end of the season. Every season is different. The thing that’s important is that set of players and how we evolved, and you go through that every season. There are new faces in the building that you have to asses, and you have to play to their strengths. Something I’ve always believed in is that you try to find guys that have special talents and play to their strengths.

Did anyone surprise you on how they tried to attack Cam?

No, not really surprised. In some cases it

was the personality of certain teams. And they played what they do, and they do what they do. In other cases, maybe some people tried to do some things, and really I think the good thing for Cam from his stand point in learning and growing, he saw a lot of different things last season. I don’t think that there was one thing that hurt him necessarily, consistently that he didn’t get better at, and there is plenty of room for growth where he did well.

What was your biggest surprise about the offense last year?

I don’t that this was a surprise, but what really impressed me the most was the group, the type of guys and people that they are. The effort and the focus that they had in learning and working and to pick up the things we were trying to do, and we threw a lot at them, an awful lot at them. They responded, and it’s a great group of guys to be around on a day-to-day basis, and that makes a big difference when you’re coaching and you’re coming into work every day.

Is it hard keeping so many guys happy who want the football?

That comes with the territory a little bit.

I think the biggest thing is that hopefully you have guys that buy into the team and the team first. You know, in the long run if we do other things that we need to do to be successful and win games, all those individual accolades will come. Like I say, there’s some real great guys in that locker room and they bought into it, and hopefully we can continue to do that and improve. That’s the big thing this off-season. You know you start over, you start fresh, you start to climb the mountain, and everyone is 0 and 0. Nothing you did last year matters, either good things or bad things and so you’re building. And we have to do the things we need to do to get ourselves ready to go play that first game and obviously throughout the season.

How will having everybody here for OTAs help once the team gets to Spartanburg?

It gives them a good introduction into the system and, especially for the young guys, it gets them acclimated to what we are trying to do. It’s good review and honing for the vets as well and again continuing to improve and understanding what we are doing. Not just the “whats” but the “whys” as of what we are doing.

Chudzinski (R) and quarterback coach Mike Shula played integral roles in the development of Cam Newton as a rookie.

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What do you see is the biggest challenge for the offense going into 2012?

Well, I think that remains to be seen right now until we go through and we see what we are going to be and kind of see some of the new faces that we have. We lost some guys that were valuable contributors to us last season, and we are going to need some guys to step up and pick up the slack there. Once we get into this thing and kind of see what we are, I think that’s where we will be able to identify where the biggest challenge is. Recognizing and understanding that we are starting from scratch and every season is a new season and every season has its different challenges and understanding that and preparing for that is important.

Is there pressure to evolve as an offense and to change and adapt?

You just have to be careful; there is a fine line between evolving and changing and then abandoning some things that you can do well. So what you’d like to do is be able

to improve on the things that you’re doing and stay ahead of the curve of what’s going on in the trends and the game today.

Is that what the self-scouting process is?

There’s a couple different components, two different main components, and one is on self-scout. Seeing what are our tendencies, what are the things that people would look at us and say we need to attack, and then also from our stand point, saying, ok what are the areas that we can get better at and here is something that showed up that we need more work on that we can design our practices, gear our practices towards improving or finding a different way of doing it or whatever it may be to do those things.

Do you anticipate a similar balance to last year when we were 48 run and 52 pass?

When I use the term “balance” it really doesn’t mean the same number of runs, the same number of passes. Balance to

me means you can do both and specifically either one in order to help you win a game when you need to. If you are one dimensional it catches up to you at some point down the road in this League. So the ability to do both, this is what I talk to the players the most about-the ability to win games in different ways. That you can go on a slug fest and low scoring game and run the ball or play field position or do whatever you need to do to win, and at the same time you can outscore somebody in a high scoring game, you can win a game in a two minute drill at the end of the game driving down, throwing the ball, or you can hold onto a win running the football to run out the game, and that balance is the ability to do whatever it takes to win. I really don’t care in terms of numbers how that all comes together, if its 60-40, if its 50-50, if its 45-55, or 70-30 it might be different game-to-game or it might be different within a game or a half or whatever it may be.

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