Coach Q&A: Meet SMU OL coach, new co-OC AJ Ricker

With spring football practices weeks away, The HillTopics wants to introduce all to the SMU coaching staff. In today's "Coach Q&A," we speak to offensive line coach AJ Ricker, who recently added the co-offensive coordinator title to his resume.

Here is Ricker's bio, courtesy of SMU Football. And in speaking with head coach Sonny Dykes of Ricker's recent promotion, it's an opportunity Ricker is extremely excited about.

"You want to always empower your coaches much as you can, give those guys the opportunity to continue to grow," Dykes said. "You want them to learn and grow their focus, not just from one position but from many different positions. That's just one of the things that helps coaches grow, and it seemed to make sense in this case."

Read what Ricker had to say about SMU and what's to be expected.

In your short time at SMU, what's life been like for you?

Actually, really good. It was a chance to get back to where my family's from. My wife's from Texas. You've heard so much about Coach [Sonny] Dykes, and when Coach Dykes first got this job, I tried like heck to get in on it. When you try to get a job, you ask around, 'Hey, what's Coach Dykes like?' I got nothing but positive feedback, and being at a place like SMU is like a sleeping giant. It's so intriguing. When I got here, SMU was everything I thought it would be.

You've added the offensive coordinator title to your job. Take me back to that day. How did you find out you'd be co-OC, and what were your initial thoughts?

It was something obviously Coach Dykes and I talked about. I've kind of always had the itch to call plays and continue to grow in the profession. I think the minute you get complacent or don't want to grow anymore -- and with this game constantly evolving to where you've got to keep up -- it's time to do something else. Coach Dykes and I talked, and when Rhett [Lashlee] left, it was something I approached him about.

Obviously, I've got a ways to go on some of the passing concepts, but really O-line coaches are like run game coordinators. Getting the co-offensive coordinator title was something important to me in growing. It obviously helps when you've got players like we do at SMU.

I know you've got a pretty good relationship with the newest coach on staff, co-OC Garrett Riley. What are your thoughts about him?

When Rhett left, Coach Dykes and I talked, and he had a list of names. Working with Garrett at Kansas, that was my first time. I saw then that he was a young, energetic guy who is super sharp in football Xs and Os. To me, he coaches a lot like educated teachers. You can be super smart, but how can you regurgitate that information to players you're trying to teach? That's something I think Garrett does a really good job of.

His name came to mind as soon as Rhett left. It's always good to bring somebody in you're familiar with and know what his offense is. Even though he's coming in knowing that there doesn't need to be a ton of changes, we'll tweak a couple of things and obviously maintain it and do better than what we did last year -- we feel like we've got all the pieces. I've been places where there are three or four pieces of the puzzle missing, and it just didn't work out. That's not the case here.

SMU had one of the nation's most prolific offenses in 2019, and you've got a lot of valuable players returning for 2020. What are the expectations for the offense and the team as a whole?

That's a great question, and I don't want to give a generic answer. We sat before signing day and threw some stuff on the wall to see what would stick. We haven't really gotten into the goals of what we want this offense to do. In my opinion, we're going to keep it simple. We're going to play fast, and we're going to try to leave guys in positions to be successful and not move them around.

We're going to play with confidence. It's our job, no matter what, to score more points than we allow. I know that's so cliche, but it's the honest truth. We have that mindset, and I think I can speak to guys who are really starting to understand physicality and toughness and finishing. We're nowhere near where we need to be, but guys, at least, are seeing the vision, and that's what we're working towards.

As the O-line coach, it's easy to say the O-line is the glue to this offense. How important will this group be for the 2020 season?

These guys will have a familiar O-line coach. When I played in college, I had three O-line coaches in my four years. As far as expectations, they know what I'm all about. I like to pride myself not so much on the technique -- even though that's the most important thing for us -- but on stuff that speaks to the talent. Stuff like your attitude and toughness and the way you finish, the stuff I think you can get better at. That, to me, is the glue.

It all starts up front. With that being said, you've got Shane Buechele, who gets rid of the ball on time and knows where he needs to go with it. We've got running backs who will hit the hole. We've just got to consider to recreate the line of scrimmage and run game and continue to protect Shane.

I told these guys when I first got here, even before Shane got here, that we've got some special quarterbacks on roster. Sometimes, you don't have a guy back there. In my opinion, if you don't have a dude back there, it's hard, man. We've got a couple here, and there's a pride factor of taking care of those guys and keeping them clean throughout the game. Sometimes, a 3-yard run is a great run, and being efficient in the run game is important. It all starts up front, that will never change, and we're just trying to work on their mindset and demeanor as we continue to get this thing going in the right direction.

You had seven offensive line signees and a couple more additions introduced during the 2020 signing day. What does it say about the future of this program with the talent you picked up?

I think it's huge. You look at numbers wise and scholarships wise, we're getting to where we need to be. I tell people all the time competition brings out the best in every player. I want guys coming in every day showing up knowing there's a guy chomping at the heels to take your job. That's where we're headed. If you look at the length with who we recruited, we've got some 6-6, 6-7 guys who can be developmental guys. Every freshman should be a developmental guy; he should never have to come in as a true freshman. We've got a good group of guys coming in, and the key to all those guys is they're tough and physical. That's what we're going to hang our hats on.