A Changed Vance Joseph: Wednesday’s practice wasn’t great

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It was like clockwork. Last year, it felt as if every week head coach Vance Joseph would lead off his Wednesday press conference deeming his team’s practice on the day as “great.”

During the team’s 3-1 start, there was nothing not to love about the great practices during the week. But shortly after the train started coming off the rails, Joseph’s praise of practice became nothing but kindle for the people that didn’t believe in the head coach.

Joseph was raked over the coals week in and week out after he would say his team had a good practice and then turn around and see the team’s losing streak extend on Sundays.

New year, new Vance.

On Wednesday, Joseph had a prime opportunity to pull the ol’ “Great Wednesday practice” line after his team, well, had a very good practice by nearly every account.

Not only that, during his press conference Joseph was teed up with a question he could knock out of the park in praise for his team. This time, no one would have been on his case.

Instead, he went the other direction.

“It’s practice, and sometimes [the media] watches, and it all looks good. It’s not. We’re not there yet,” Joseph said sternly. “Everyone right now in the league is feeling good. That’s what camp’s about. This is my 15th camp and every camp I went to, it was a good camp. So, how do you know how good you are until you play? That stuff is overrated—how it looks.

“We have some guys who are not doing things right, right now. We’re still coaching loafs. So it’s not perfect, but everyone feels good right now because it’s training camp. It’s professional football players, and it’s professional coaches, so it should look good to the eye, but as you study it, we’ve got a long way to go. It’s training camp.”

Oh, what a 360 in less than a year.

Look no further than last season to understand the coach’s changed outlook. After a 3-1 start, the team fell into a dismal downfall, losing eight-consecutive games. Joseph doesn’t want his team to get on their high horse this year.

“We’ve had night meetings where we’re talking about what’s real and what’s out there,” Joseph said, talking about honest nightly team meetings in camp. “We know how it feels when it’s right, but we have to do a better job of keeping it going. I think this team gets it. We’re humble, and we’re hungry, but we have work to do. The players understand that. That’s being explained to them every night.

“Again, it looks great. Guys are working hard and making plays out here, and it looks great to you guys I’m sure, but to us, we get it. It’s a long road to winning football games. We’re being very humble with this thing.”

Everyone wanted to see a culture change. Everyone wanted to actually see a changed Joseph.

Well, here it is.

Joseph isn’t giving his players anything anymore. Not even praise for a good practice.

With everyone raving about Paxton Lynch in wake of him having one of his best practices as a pro on Wednesday, Joseph could have jumped all over it. Instead, he took a more modest approach.

“He looked okay from my angle,” Joseph said, making every media member wonder if they watched the same practice as the head coach. “Obviously, we’ve got to watch the tape and see what the total practice looked like, but he made some plays. He’s made plays all offseason and even our first four days of camp. It’s practice. He’s made plays, he’s missed plays. This is practice. He’s getting better.”

He’s taking this no-nonsense, all-business approach with his players, too.

“We want those guys to stay off their feet and rest,” Joseph said about the team’s first off day on Thursday. “It’s not an off-day to go out and have a good time, we’re in training camp still. We want to keep the focus on training camp and obviously take care of their body. Having a day off, go see your wife, go see your kids, and come back and get your focus back on football.”

Saying all of this, Joseph “absolutely” feels good about where his team is at five days into camp.

He’s just not going to lead his press conference off with it.