MOBILE, ALA.: Coach Hue Jackson insisted he’s not interested in the Browns appearing on the HBO documentary series Hard Knocks, but his most recent competitive clash with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams would have been a perfect audition.
Jackson and Williams talked trash as if they were pro wrestlers during the South team’s Senior Bowl practice Thursday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
At one point, Jackson even did his best Ric Flair impression by taunting Williams with a “woo!”
The friendly rivalry between the coaches with dynamic personalities stole the show during a red-zone team drill late in practice.
“You see it be contagious with the players. That’s what we want,” said Williams, whom Jackson hired to lead the defense on Jan. 7. “We want the players to see that we are never going to apologize for competing.
“I don’t know whether you can print this or not, but we’re going to s*** talk, we’re going to get after it and we want them to know there’s hard things about daily practice, but when we can make it fun, let’s make it fun.
“Then when they start talking more than we’re talking, Hue and I can back up and let them go. But they have to have an example first, and we’re going to try to do that as much as we can.”
After Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs ran for a score on a zone-read play, Jackson looked at Williams and yelled, “Touchdown. Touchdown. Hey, Gregg. Was that a touchdown?”
Williams shouted an expletive before telling Jackson it took his offense 10 plays to reach the end zone.
“One out of 10,” he said.
Another touchdown prompted Jackson to say, “Hey, Gregg. You all right?”
Williams answered with another loud expletive.
When the defense later stuffed a run, Williams held his left hand to his left ear as if he were asking Jackson why he didn’t have anything to brag about.
“It’s about time you broke the streak,” Jackson replied.
The scene provided an entertaining wrap-up to Senior Bowl practices, which ran Tuesday through Thursday. The college all-star game will be played at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
In the meantime, Jackson and Williams will keep trying to show each other up.
“If you could have a camera in the offices right now, it’s every day in the offices, do it in the hallway, sticking sticker notes up on each other’s office doors just trying to get each other p***** off for that day,” Williams said. “And that’s fun. We knew that. That’s one of the things we talked about before we signed up: Let’s do this. Let’s make sure we have a good time with that. You can’t take things personal when you’re competing. OK? It’s fun stuff.”
Speaking of a camera in the office, the Browns are among eight teams the league can compel to be featured on Hard Knocks in training camp this summer because they haven’t made the playoffs in the past two seasons, they didn’t change head coaches this offseason and they haven’t appeared on the show in the past 10 years.
The show’s producers already know there are stars in Cleveland because Jackson and Williams have created highlights on Hard Knocks in the past (Jackson with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2013 and Williams with the Los Angeles Rams last year).
“Oh, my God. I’m not interested in that,” Jackson said of the Browns possibly appearing on Hard Knocks. “I’m interested in just coaching our team and getting our team better.”
The Browns will need more than classic exchanges between Jackson and Williams to improve after going 1-15 last season. The coaches realize that but believe competition between them can help.
“I think it raises the intensity of practice,” Jackson said. “I think it’s all good fun. It’s never nothing derogatory. It’s just that’s how he coaches his guys, that’s kind of how I coach our guys and we try to get the best out of them.”
Williams loved every minute of it during the final Senior Bowl practice.
“Those things right there are memories for life,” he said.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.