Latest / Coaches Corner / FB Coach Jim Mora Avail - August 18

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FB Coach Jim Mora Avail - August 18 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  So that kind of for us puts it puts the lid on training camp and
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  now we move into you know, prep for Enstan State and this season.
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  And I thought we had seventeen really good practices. And I told our guys
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  that I thought they just did a tremendous job of competing in a cooperative manner,
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  you know. I mean, they get after it every single day.
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  It's the first time in my career I can remember that we didn't have a
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  training camp fight, not a single fight, and yet they competed like crazy
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  every single day. And to me, that's a sign of maturity. It's
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  a sign that they respect each other. It's a sign that they care about
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  each other, and that they understand what our objectives are. I mean,
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  you know, doing this a long time. Camps get hot, they get
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  heated, but if you can't control yourself in that environment, it's hard to
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  go out and perform on a Saturday. And so I love the competitive maturity
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  of this team and I think it's a real positive. So very very happy
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  with where we are. Obviously, the decision that has been made is the
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  quarterback position, and so Nick and I will sit down in the next two
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  days and we'll come to a decision on which way we want to go and
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  uh, and then we'll go one hundred miles an hour that way. So
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  go ahead, now that I was done. How tough have they made it?
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  The quarterbacks made it under to try to decide. They've made it very
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  tough, you know, And this week was probably not the most ideal work
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  week for them because you know, Joe kind of tweaked his uh calf a
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  little bit and miss a little time, and then take One's arm was a
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  little bit sore and Zion's arm kind of ran out of gas a little bit,
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  so they didn't necessarily get the work they needed. So we have to
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  do and we track everything anyway, but we're just gonna go back and look
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  at everything and look at all their players on tape and make the best decision
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  for this team. And I think, you know, uh, typically you'd
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  want it to be clearly defined, but I think in this case, it's
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  probably a positive that they're so close, you know, because we have confident
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  and it's in all of them, and uh, you know, we'll just
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  make the decision with things best for the team. And the great thing is
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  that I know this is that whichever man gets the job the other two and
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  this isn't the discount Tucker, but Tucker hasn't been able to do much or
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  Kale. But you know, really it's those three is Uh. They're going
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  to support whoever the starter is in number two. They're gonna be prepared to
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  go in and play should they be called upon. And that's that's just to
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  me. Speaks to their characters switched. It's a safety. See now back
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  to slash Kale is Kale's a football player, you know, so yeah,
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  he played some safety. Uh when Braden left, he moved back to quarterback.
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  You see, he's never in a red jersey because he's on all our
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  special teams. And teased him today, I said, you want to go
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  get a series on defense? You know, he's the guy out there.
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  Your quarterbacks are really never live. He's the guy out there. Make me
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  live, you know, I want to be live. I think our team
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  loves the guy. Man. You know, he's just a ball player.
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  So having a guy like that is really good for us, just because he's
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  so in you know, and he's willing to accept any role and embrace it
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  and run with it. Your mind, what the progress to the offense is
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  and need to ask you throughly, Yes, I am never satisfied, but
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  yeah, happy with the progress because I think we have a real clear understanding
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  of of who our players are, what they're good at, you know what
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  what you know, where our weaknesses are. I know that you know,
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  Nick, and that's that side of the ball. Do a great job of
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  putting guys in position to accentuate their positives. And I feel like in the
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  passing game, we're much more competent than we ever were at any point last
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  year, and yet we're still running the ball well. So there's a sense
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  of confidence I think going into this next step that is pretty comforting. Jim,
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  how about the other side of the ball you've touched on this like the
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  collaborative effort that yeah, that you've seemed to really like last year? It
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  was why it remains Where are you with how that's all working in And it's
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  been great, you know. I mean, I'm lucky to work with those
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  three guys. They're all really good coaches, they all really care, we
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  all have a really good working relationship. You know. Obviously, you know
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  my duties are you know, number one as a head coach, and then
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  you know, two working with the defense. And so if there's head coaching
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  duties that I have to tend to have great confidence that those guys are going
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  to get handled whatever has to get handled. But I just feel like,
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  you know, the four of us and that's and you can also include the
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  analysts and the gas but you know, the four of us just work really
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  well well together. We see the game the same, but we also see
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  it differently in a productive way. You know, everyone feels like they can
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  bring ideas to the table and then when we agree on what we want to
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  do, we all go out of you know, go one hundred miles an
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  hour that way. So I like where we're at. But it's you know,
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  the players are going to determine how we play on defense. You know,
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  it doesn't matter what defense you call, it's how they play that defense.
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  And to me, that's what's exciting is we've got a bunch of guys
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  that want to be good players and they want to be part of a really
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  good defense. You guys operate as a staff any differently than you did on
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  defense, given that you've done it together for a year now, just a
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  little more refined. Yeah, we just you know, last year was difficult.
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  Last year was very challenging because the first five weeks of the season we
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  were basically redoing our defense. You know, we threw the the stuff that
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  was here out. You know, it didn't fit who we were from a
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  personnel standpoint, and we we had to kind of manage that and there were
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  some tough times in there, and so there was a lot of growing that
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  took place last year between us and the staff and the team. And then
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  this offseason was really good because we were able to go back and really drill
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  down and some of the things that we kind of glossed over during the season
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  because you're just trying to get a game plan in. We were able to
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  go back and analyze and are we doing the right things? Are we making
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  the right decisions, Are you know, we putting the players in the right
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  spot. And I feel like, uh, you know, we are were
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  so much further along now than we ever were, which we should be.
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  So you mentioned the competitive maturity and what other ways is the squad better organized,
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  better prepared, better ready for this? Isn't open that then they were
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  going into detail year there, Well, we're health more healthy, you know,
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  and I think that's just a functional way that you know, you gotta
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  get a little bit lucky obviously, you know when you go through seventeen practice
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  like that. But I also think it's a fact that they know how to
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  practice. You know, they know how to get after it and be competitive
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  and be physical without trying to hurt each other. You know, they know
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  how to stay on their feet. You know. When football, you know,
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  injuries come a lot of times when you know guys are on the ground,
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  and our guys know how to practice hard, and you know, I
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  don't want to compare it to an NFL team because we're not an NFL team,
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  but we practice like NFL teams practice, you know, hard, physical,
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  but we try to take care of each other. And so that that's
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  a good feeling to have because you know, you can tell as a coach
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  if if guy, if you can always feel the intensity of a practice,
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  and I don't think we've had one practice where I've gone and I didn't like
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  the intensity there. You know, I just like the way they go at
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  it, and it's to me it's a sign of a mature team. I
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  think they take the lead of on offense, you have you have you have
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  Christian right on defense, you have Jackson. They're both great players who are
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  both really good people in great teammates and team members, and I think everyone
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  kind of takes their cues from those guys and that that level of maturity that
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  they demonstrate everyone's trying to match all the time. I feel like the team
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  overall is kind of get compete at a higher level than the less your team
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  overall, we need to, We should. That should be our expectation.
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  You know. That's what I expect out of these guys, That's what they
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  expect out of themselves, is that we're going to be wildly competitive. You
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  know, I never make predictions on a season. Our goal is always to
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  be one and all every week. So I don't know what our records are
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  going to be, but you know, I expect them to compete no matter
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  what the circumstances are, whether we're up by thirty or down by fifty.
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  You know, we should be competing because you never know what the next play
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  holds. You know, you never know when the play is going to happen
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  that that can decide a game. So fortunately we have a bunch of guys
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  that seem to understand that. You know, I think one thing we have
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  to get better at is understand how to function difficult situations, you know,
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  when it's a little bit chaotic or their pressures on, you know, just
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  relaxing a little bit, not getting up tight. And we've been working hard
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  on that. To me, that's a function of mental toughness. I've said
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  that before as we were you know, I thought we had work to do
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  in terms of being a more mentally tough football team, and I think we've
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  made progress. So he's usually in campus, one or two guys who came
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  in and after camp stood out to you as someone who you weren't really expecting
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  to raise to the level that they because so one or two guys that you
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  can name that you were really surprised a good way with. I would say
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  the one that just really jumps out right when you said that, it was
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  Cam Edwards. He jumped out to me, you know, and it was
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  more last week in that scrimmage, you know, and the way he's been
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  practicing, the toughness he showed, the way he looks physically, the way
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  that he's matured as a young man. You know, last year he was
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  you know, he's a freshman. He's a little flighty at times, and
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  now he's just really locked in. He looks good, he's he's doing well.
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  He's the guy that really stands out to me. Kylie Hicks, I
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  think stands out. You know, we didn't get to see him in camp
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  last year because he pulled his hamstring early and then he didn't do much during
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  the season because because it was a lingering injury and he'd missed so much time,
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  he was playing catch up. And he's had a good camp, you
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  know, I think, uh, those are probably the two that that just
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  off the top of my head stand out. So when you think back to
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  a year ago Ormember, you're mentioning the twenty seven point where it goes and
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  you've never been that merch in your life? How us? It's us not
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  the case? Have a way? Were you more nervous or going into the
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  game last year than than maybe you let on? Then? Are you more
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  securing that you know what it's going to look like now that you've been here
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  a year? How don't? The problem is you never know what it's gonna
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  look like. You think you know what it's gonna look like when you step
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  on the field, and then you know all hell breaks. Lewis essentially in
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  a football game. I wish I knew what it's gonna look like. I
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  feel more confident that we will react to whatever situation unfolds in front of us.
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  I think, as a football team is a staff, were more prepared
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  to react in a positive way to whatever. I think. You know,
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  one of the things that I didn't do a good job of early last year
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  was I did I talked too much about, you know, handling adversity and
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  not handling success, and essentially it's the same thing, you know. And
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  so we got into that game at Utah State and we jump up fourteen nothing,
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  and I'm not sure we knew how to handle it. And you know,
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  I think we know how to handle the success and the adversity, like
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  I said, kind of being the same thing a lot better than we do
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  than we did last year. And then in and of itself is wet last
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  year, and you think about adversity because that's all the program that knows.
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  Now, Yeah, success, Yeah, I mean we were going out to
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  the West coast or close to the West coast to play a you know,
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  a top twenty five team and coming off a one to eleven season with the
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  new staff, and uh, but that was a mistake I made that I
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  shouldn't have made. And uh, I just feel like we're we're much more
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  equipped right now as a program to handle whatever's about to come at us.
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  You know, from from an emotional standpoint, it throws whether guys were speak
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  with today, did what's your experience? And like, I love him as
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  he's he's a he's a maniacal competitor, maniacal competitor. This stuff is so
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  important him. There's not a guy that asks more questions than that guy right
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  there. There's not a guy that I found that cares more about this team
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  than that guy right there. I love coaching him. You know, I've
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  always had an affinity for defensive backs. It's kind of how I started.
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  I will always love safeties that you know, are passionate like he is.
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  So you know, that's what you want on your team. You know,
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  that's the kind of guy that you want to build around. I think he's
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  made tremendous strikes. And when I first met him, he was kind of
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  coming off an injury. He's in the training room, he's kind of scrawny,
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  and now he's like a man, you know, And I mean he
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  brings it every day. You can count on him every day. His energy's
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  never down, it's always up. If it's not up, he gets it
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  up and figures the way out to fake it till he makes it. And
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  I love coaching guys like that. I love I've been around a lot of
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  them, and man, he's fun. You're gonna you know he's well you
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  guys have talked to before, Right, He's awesome. You know he's gonna
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  tell you straight how it is. That's what he is. He's real gifts.
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  His physical gifts is as tough as hell. I think more than anything
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  which stands out to me about him though, it's like how important football is
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  to him, how important this team is to him, how how passionate he
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  is about learning and taking the next steps, Like he never has a day
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  where he's not searching for a way to get better. I mean, you
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  can't even believe some of the questions he asked. And you know, we
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  joke about it sometimes as coaches. A drownt is gonna have a question,
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  and he always has a question, and he doesn't let me off the hook
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  if you don't give him like a good answer, he drills down on you
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  always in respectful way you love to be around guys like that, You know,
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  you absolutely love to be around guys like that. What position group has
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  to improved the most of you think, Oh goodness, I would say two.
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  I would say the tight ends, in the in the white outs,
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  you know, I would say those are the two groups to me that at
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  this point of improved the most. You know, losing Keelan and I'm sorry,
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  I'm blanking right now. Huh yeah, sorry, at you see that.
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  I mean that this year, you know that was that was a hit.
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  But I think that our our recruiting staff and our assistant coaches did a
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  really good job identifying some guys could come in and play. And then just
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  seeing the maturity of a guy like Kyli Kailish, you know, the way
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  he's stepped it up, uh Casey, Kevin cam back. You know,
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  now he's kind of been limited in his campus if you guys have known,
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  you know, because of his hamstring. But he's back to one hundred percent.
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  So I think that group, and then you know, seeing justin Jolie
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  take a step up, Unminsky, take a step up, Nick Harris,
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  take a step up. Adding uh, Alex, you know, Honig I
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  mean, he's hasn't practiced in a couple of weeks, but he's gonna be
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  okay. He's a really good player, uh, you know, bo having
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  another something. We're pretty deep at those positions right now, a lot more
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  depth than we ever had last year, at any point in time for the
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  football your whole life. Is this time of year extra special for us.
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  It like Christmas Eve, you know, two weeks two weeks away from a
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  game. Nah, I mean, I I just I just try to stay
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  even keeled and you know, really just focus on, you know, what
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  we gotta next. I don't get too far down the road. It's probably
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  because I'm you know, sold, done it so long, you know,
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  it's almost like it's almost the opposite of what you think. You know,
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  But I am excited for the season. So I'm excited to see what these
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  guys are capable. I'm excited to see the progress that we've made. You
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  know, sometimes you go through an off season, you go through a camp,
• 14:35
  and you think you've made progress, and you really haven't. You know,
• 14:37
  because every team in the country right now is you know, full of
• 14:39
  optimism and hope, and they're talking about the progress they made. Everyone's stay
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  in the same thing that I'm saying, and then you get into the season,
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  it's like, WHOA, I was wrong or damn I was right.
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  So I guess maybe I'm excited to see you know, am I writer?
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  Am I? Am? I fooling myself? Which? How do you feel
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  up to a center position? I think floated out through sure playing there So
• 15:00
  looks like Chris Foy's got some time day yep and Kari Yeah. I think
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  there's a lot of flexibility because I think there's three guys that can perform at
• 15:07
  a high level Chris, Christian and Yukari. And then so as a staff,
• 15:13
  what's important is that we put the five guys on the field that function
• 15:16
  the best together and give us what we want. And I think there's decisions
• 15:20
  will be made right there. You know, a guy like Christian Haynes is
• 15:24
  so good at guard, He's an All American guard. You go, do
• 15:28
  you take him out of position that he's really really comfortable in and put him
• 15:31
  at the center where he's not as comfortable. Maybe it slows him down just
• 15:35
  a hair where he's not able to be as great a player, or do
• 15:37
  you you know, even if he is the best center, So you got
• 15:41
  to find your the mix of the best five. And you know, we
• 15:43
  feel like we've got a pretty good idea. But all those things will be
• 15:46
  solidified this weekend. You know, we got to come out on Monday when
• 15:50
  we practice again, and we have to know who our starting quarterback is.
• 15:54
  We don't have to know who our five starting offensive linemen are and who are
• 15:58
  sixth is and who are seventh is? And uh, you know, defensively
• 16:02
  on the defensive line, it's a little bit different the offensive line because you're
• 16:03
  gonna play multiple guys on the offensive line, it's important to have that continuity.
• 16:07
  Will you announce the starting put it back there, and then you kind
• 16:11
  of keep it close after you know, I don't know I've changed over the
• 16:14
  years. Like I used to think, I will just keep it a secret.
• 16:17
  I mean, I'll probably announce it, you know. I mean,
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  if anyone you know wants to know, I'm not gonna not tell you.
• 16:23
  You know, I don't know. I just think I used to be paranoid,
• 16:26
  you know, I used to. I'm probably still am paranoid, but
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  I used to be really paranoid. And you know, you're like, I'm
• 16:33
  not gonna tell him the starting quarterback. I don't want their opponent to know
• 16:36
  they find out anyway, you know, so, I think these coaches,
• 16:38
  we sometimes overreact to some of that stuff. There's social media, you can't
• 16:42
  hide anything. You can't hide anything. No someone's you know, someone's videotaping
• 16:45
  everything you do. So alright, all right, thanks, everybody appreciate you
• 16:49
  guys coming out