So said Green Bay Packer coach Mike McCarthy on Tuesday after the Packers introduced their new assistant coaches.

Which must mean things are pretty exciting around 1265 Lombardi Ave.

The Packers put the finishing touches on their coaching staff, adding Darren Perry as secondary / safeties coach; Joe Whitt Jr. as secondary / cornerbacks coach; Dave Redding as strength and conditioning coordinator; Scott McCurley as defensive quality control coach; John Rushing as offensive quality control coach; and Chad Morton as coaching administrator.

Perry previously was the Oakland Raiders defensive backs coach, and he is a former Pittsburgh player and assistant coach.

He is credited with helping the development of all-pro safeties Troy Polamalu in Pittsburgh and Nnamdi Asomugha in Oakland.

"Really, to be a good coach you have to have some good players," Perry said, "and I don't want to take more credit than I deserve because Troy is a tremendous player, and Nnamdi is a fantastic player. Any time you get some good players, they're always going to make you look a lot better."

Kevin Greene as outside linebackers coach and Mike Trgovac as defensive line coach were previously reported but not officially announced until Tuesday.

Three previous hires, Dom Capers as defensive coordinator, Shawn Slocum as special teams coordinator and special teams assistant Curtis Fuller, a former Packer safety in 2003-'04, were announced previously.

Whitt Jr. was the Packers' defensive quality control coach in 2008 after spending a year as an assistant defensive backs coach in Atlanta in 2007.

McCurley moves into Whitt's old spot. McCurley, 28, was a coaching administrative intern for the Packers in 2006 and a coaching administrator in 2007 and '08.

Whitt inherits a pair of Pro Bowl cornerbacks. Al Harris will play Sunday in the Pro Bowl as an injury replacement, and Charles Woodson was voted in as a starter but pulled out of the game because of an injury.

"It's a real good situation," Whitt said of the cornerback position.

At the same time, he also knows that, with Harris and Woodson in their 30s, he'll have to help develop young cornerbacks for the future.

"I look at it as a good challenge because of the guys that we have," Whitt said. "I'm excited with the group we have."

The new coaches reported for their first day of work on Monday and met with reporters for an hour on Tuesday.

"I think the Green Bay Packers' organization will never lack for energy," McCarthy said. "It's such a great place to work from a culture standpoint - the passion of all the people who work here - but there's definitely a ton of energy on the third floor right now."

Of course, the reason that change was needed wasn't so positive or exciting, as the Packers are coming off a disappointing 6-10 season.

They hope that changes drastically in 2009.

Toward that end, the biggest change is the expected move from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4.

Capers, Greene and Trgovac will be the coaches teaching a great majority of the differences to the current players. McCarthy confirmed on Tuesday that defensive end Aaron Kampman will now be viewed more as an outside linebacker in the new scheme.

"It depends pretty much on what personnel we have on the field, but when we line up in the first base defense, yeah, Aaron will be an outside linebacker," McCarthy said.

Greene wasn't prepared to comment on Kampman yet, preferring to defer to Capers on that front. But he was ready to comment on what he expects to bring to the outside linebackers. He was known as a fiery player on the field and he expects to bring some fire to his job.

Just how much, he'll have to learn on the fly, as this is his first full-time coaching job.

"I know that I'm going to coach the way I played, and the way I played was that I love the game," said Greene, who is a trained paratrooper who served 20 years on the Army reserve. "If I played like a wild man, I don't know. I didn't really see it that way. I just saw it like I was having fun playing the game."

McCarthy said that he didn't expect Kampman to have to make too many adjustments to play outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense.

"Aaron Kampman knows how to rush the passer, and the first responsibility for the outside linebacker in the base personnel is to rush the passer," McCarthy said.

While the 3-4 will be new in Green Bay, Capers admitted success and failure still comes down to the players.

"You have to have good Football players," Capers said. "And good Football players are going to be good Football players whatever system you put them in.

"You just have to have enough flexibility in the things you're doing where you try to feature what your best players do best."

In 2008 in a 4-3 defense, the Packers got very little high-impact play from their linebackers. Capers believes the system will help the crop of linebackers make more impact.

"One of the reasons I like the four linebackers is I think it gives you more flexibility in terms of the things you can do," Capers said. "I think the obvious thing is that with four down linemen you consider those your four rushers, where if you have three down linemen, then any one of those four linebackers can become your fourth rusher.

"And if you rush five, that's going to involve two of those linebackers and they can come from a number of different spots."

EVERYBODY IN THEIR PLACES

The Packers' new assistants and those whose duties changed for the 2009 season:

Position Coach

Defensive coordinator Dom Capers

Special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum

Strength and conditioning coordinator Dave Redding

Inside linebackers Winston Moss

Outside linebackers Kevin Greene

Defensive line Mike Trgovac

Safeties Darren Perry

Cornerbacks Joe Whitt Jr.

Assistant special teams Curtis Fuller

Offensive quality control John Rushing

Defensive quality control Scott McCurley

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