Tucker takes over Jaguars, gets coaching audition

“Good players make a good coach,” Tucker said. “I believe in keeping it simple, simple enough where we can line up and play fast and we can be relentless and we can be aggressive. But we have enough where we can be confident in regards to covering whatever we need to cover, whatever offenses throw at us, multiple sets, things like that.

“The thing that you’ll see when you watch our defense is that they play with great technique and fundamentals. They play hard, they’re relentless, they play through the echo of the whistle and those are things we believe in and those are things we emphasize every day, and you get what you emphasize.”

Tucker, 39, began his coaching career as a a graduate assistant at Michigan State under Nick Saban in 1997. He coached defensive backs at Miami (Ohio), LSU and Ohio State before moving to the NFL with the Cleveland Browns in 2005. He was Cleveland’s secondary coach for three years before getting promoted to defensive coordinator.

Having never been a head coach, Tucker doesn’t plan on getting overly involved with the offense.

After all, the last time he stepped out of his realm, he painfully injured his leg while playfully fielding punts in practice.

Nonetheless, he knows this is a big opportunity.

“I’m always motivated to do the best that I can, and right now, my focus is on these next five weeks to do everything that I possibly can to get this team prepared to play,” Tucker said. “There’s a certain brand of football that we need to show out there. It’s relentless, it’s attention to detail, it’s high effort, it’s high energy, it’s high impact. Those are things that we’re going to work on.

“In terms of my future as a head coach, that’s for another day. … Only time will tell what opportunities I will have in the future, but I am confident and comfortable where I am right now.”

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