The Footwork King Richad Whitfield on training A&M commits & players

Key notes from Richad Whitfield interview

• I finished high school in 2001 and tried to walk on at University of Houston, but I battled injuries my whole career.  One of the defensive back coaches at UH always talked about how important having good feet were.  After my injuries, I stuck with it and got more knowledgeable about what athletes at each position need to do to be more successful.  I have found something that works that I can apply to every athlete, and it has taken off.
  
  
• I work with pretty much all football positions, but the only things I do with quarterbacks is work on the quick twitch to be able to move in the pocket.  You do not want a quarterback with dead and heavy feet out there.  I make sure they can tuck the ball and get the necessary yardage to make them elusive.  Matt Davis is an example, I worked on him with him on his footwork, and then he will go and work with a quarterback coach on his mechanical stuff.
  
  
• What a lot of people don’t know is that I have been working with guys like Matt Davis and Trey Williams since they were sophomores in high school.  Those are two hard working kids and it is a bummer that they didn’t get to play together, but both are doing well.  Those guys are the ones I really starting doing stuff with when they were in high school.
  
  
• Those two guys are very funny.  I’m working with Trey today after he had a workout with the Green Bay Packers last week.  Trey Williams is magical, he is the best running back I have ever seen at any level.  He sees things and he reacts to things, which means he has great vision.  Trey can make cuts at full speed, which is something a lot of guys can’t do.  He is just like a bunny rabbit.  We do a lot of the jump cuts, and once you do them enough, they become second nature.  I really try to put these guys in uncomfortable situations out here for that very reason.
  
  
• Kingsley Keke actually worked with us all offseason and with Kemah Siverand we are helping him make the transition from receiver training to defensive back training.  Coach Joseph has done a really good job with him so far and I am happy the A&M coaches let me help these guys out so that their skills can be sharp year round.  Some of the IMG guys are going to come down when they enroll and see me.  Nick Starkel actually reached out to me last week and wants to tune his footwork up.
  
  
• I saw Nick Starkel throw at some of the quarterback-receiver camps and he has no problem throwing the football.  He has consistent tight spirals every single throw.  I am looking forward to seeing what he can do next year.
  
  
• Devin Morris, Roshauud Paul, Myles Jones, and Cameron Buckley will all be guys that are immediate impact for A&M. The mindset that those guys need to have in the SEC is to be the difference maker.  You need to go out there and leave it on the field to make the team great.  I want these guys to have the dog mentality.  I let the guys know what people say about them to add some fuel to the fire.  Myles can play corner at 6’4 and he knows he can cover the bigger guys better, we train him to be better against the smaller guys that he is going to face, too.
  
  
• I got the name Footwork King from another coach that I coach with.  He just started calling me Feet King, and it transitioned into calling my Instagram The Footwork King.  It was a name that we kind of played with for a while and then it stuck.
  
  
• Quartney Davis is coming along very well.  We're taking it kind of slow and mainly working on change of direction at a slower speed.  I really want to get him back up to speed so we are not doing a lot of breakdown stuff or full sprint stuff.  He is going to be ready and has been working really hard by going to physical therapy every single day.  He will be an impact player and I am looking forward to watching him.