TWO BITS: Belichick on Spikes, Crowder speaks

1 » New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick went on…and on…and on about former Florida Gators linebacker Brandon Spikes when asked about him Wednesday. Here is what he had to say about Spikes’ one-of-a-kind ability in the middle.

”I’m not really sure what his style is. Our defense is a lot different from what they ran at Florida. Obviously, he’s a big, physical guy, but now that we’ve had him in our defense a little bit. I think he’s got some unique skills… He does a lot of things well. It’s kind of not by the book, but effective. I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see how he [does].

“Just talking to him this morning about a couple things that he was doing… They’re not exactly the way that everybody does them, but he does them effectively, and I don’t think you need to change it. But I think it’s a little bit different. […] He’s an interesting player to coach.

“He sees some things that I’m not sure everybody sees. I mean, he’s an instinctive player. I don’t know if he’s exactly the textbook way that you would read the plays, but he reads them. It’s interesting to work him into our system again, and being a 4-3 middle linebacker in the front and system they played, which just different from what we do, and now he’s playing more on the guard and being uncovered as opposed to being covered playing behind a defensive guy. Just a little bit different. He does things well, but a little bit of a transition, but a good one. Now that he’s in our defense, some things he does are a little bit different than the way we would teach it, but he still does it well. That’s what I was trying to say.”

2 » Fellow former Gators linebacker Channing Crowder of the Patriots’ AFC East division rivals, the Miami Dolphins, spoke about working in defensive coordinator Mike Nolan‘s hybrid system and bringing some of the team’s rookies into the fold. He found a way to mention the University of Florida, of course.