Latest / Coaches Corner / JIM MORA - July 31 Post Practice

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JIM MORA - July 31 Post Practice · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  You just started off with our first breakfast. Well, it was nice to
• 0:04
  be back out on the grass with the guys. It's been a while since
• 0:07
  we've been out here spring, and you can tell that they've worked hard through
• 0:12
  the off season with Coach King and on their own to get themselves physically ready
• 0:17
  to go and mentally ready to go. Something unique about this team, and
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  unlike a lot of teams I've been around, it's just their willingness to do
• 0:23
  things on their own, away from the staff, away from the organization that
• 0:27
  we provide them. And it shows up on days like this when you come
• 0:31
  out on the first day and they jump right into it and you know,
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  not a lot of mistakes, certainly a ton of work to do, but
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  just commend our players just for the way they handle themselves this offseason and their
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  focus and their commitment. And it showed up today. So off to a
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  start, off to a decent start, a ton of work to do,
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  excited to see where we go. Much of that working independently was implemented last
• 0:58
  year by you and your staff, where you just kind of get get it
• 1:00
  rolling in the right direction, and you know, okay, we can want
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  you know, we know they're gonna be on X, Y and Z when
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  we get there. Well, you know, you guys just talk to Christian
• 1:07
  and Jackson. When you have men like that on your team, it only
• 1:10
  takes a little nudge, you know, Hey, you tell them, Hey,
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  the more you guys can do on your own as a team, the
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  tighter the bond is going to be. And you just give them a little
• 1:19
  nudge like that, and then they take it and they and they roll.
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  But I think it's really critical to have that. You know that peer to
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  peer accountability is so critical where they you know, they feel a responsibility towards
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  each other as players. And that's the respect that you have to have for
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  each other, and that's what builds the bonds that winning teams have. And
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  what's the difference starting this year, we're starting camp last year, we're now
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  returning players are familiar with how you running camp, familiar with you as a
• 1:47
  person even more, Well, it's just it things are they run smooth more
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  smooth as you said, everyone kind of knows where to go, you know.
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  And the young guys if they just fall in line and they just follow
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  the lead of the guys that have been here before, then and then it
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  certainly, you know, helps practice move along the right way. And uh,
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  you know, there's a lot of things we have to do better,
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  a lot of things you have to remind them of every you know, every
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  time you come back on the field. Heck, have to remind myself,
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  you know, where do I go, what do I do? What do
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  I say? So but we learned quickly and uh yeah, like I said,
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  our players are different, different kids, man, and they just they
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  take it so serious and it's important to them. And you can see it
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  in the way they conduct their business out here. That's depth improved at depth
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  to depth well, I think that's still to be seen. But you know,
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  just off of you know, from the just like the look test um,
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  you know, we look bigger and more physical, which is a goal
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  you know every year to continue to get bigger and more physical and more athletic
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  and faster um and more precise and uh, you know, just off the
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  eye tests and off of you know, one two hour practice, you know,
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  it seems like we've upgraded there, but you know, we've got a
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  lot of room for improvement. And you know, our our goal is to
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  come out every day and max out for that day. And uh and hopefully
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  you know that that ceiling keeps rising and we can continue to push the standard
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  up. And I think we have the types of young men that want to
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  do that. Sim How do you find the balance between remembering the highs of
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  last year get into a bowl game and the lows of reminding like some of
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  the same opponents are seeing, like NC State, they've got a hearting on
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  you, and you want to so deliver that back this year. You know,
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  it's a new year, and I think that you know, most coaches
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  would tell you that you focus on the things you can't control. You can
• 3:31
  control, and we can't control last year. We can only control what we
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  do today and going forward. And so you know, we don't talk about
• 3:38
  last year. We try to always keep our eyes forward and move forward.
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  I think that you get stuck in a rut if you're always looking backwards.
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  You know, life moves on. And uh so we won't watch the NC
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  State game on defense at least because it's not applicable. You know, they
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  don't have the same coordinator, they don't have the same quarterback um for us.
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  For me, it's my approach to life, and I think you know,
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  most competitors is It's always about the next challenge, not what happened before.
• 4:09
  Coach Maximill Award watch list came out not even an hour ago. Victor
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  Rosa not on the list? Is he the best cup secret in college football?
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  He's our third string running back right now, so I would hope he's
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  not on that list. It's a big time play make though he was last
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  year. Yeah. I don't even know what the Maxvill Award is. What
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  is it? It's a watch list for the top running backs in the name.
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  Yeah, well, we got two guys that are ahead of them on
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  the depth chart, so you know, if if if they're not on it,
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  he shouldn't be on it. The art Davante and Bruton, where's the
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  quarterback situation? Is a clear cut from day one or play out? Okay?
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  I know, I just it's anything but clear cut. It's it's a
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  competition, you know. I think it's a very healthy competition. And I
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  don't want to discount Tucker the freshman, but between Tae Kwon and and Joe,
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  you know, there's three guys that have played college football and have had
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  some success and are all really competitive guys and have all really done a great
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  job this offseason of improving and you see the improvement and the way they carry
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  themselves and their understanding of the scheme, and you know, you would like
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  it to become you'd love it to be clear cut. But hopefully, you
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  know, as we go through the next two to three weeks, it becomes,
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  you know, more defined for us. But it's not going to be
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  easy because they're all good players, they're all talented kids, they all care,
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  and they all compete like crazy. It's a good problem to have.
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  So, yeah, the idea of raising the bar, raising the standards this
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  year, how does that manifest itself in your messaging to the team and how
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  you want them to carry themselves. I think that you know, you have
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  to approach every day with the championship mentality, and you know, nothing's ever
• 5:58
  good enough. We can't ever be satisfied. We have to keep, you
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  know, like you said, pushing the standard, and when we attain a
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  goal, we have to reset it. When we reach the standard, we
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  have to reset the standard. And I think our guys understand that it's something
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  you constantly talk about, you know, and you don't do it when you
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  say it's not good enough. You don't say it in a negative way.
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  That wasn't good enough. Hey, it's more like, we can be better.
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  You know, this is exciting. Look what we're capable of. You
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  know, if we give a little bit more here, if we concentrate a
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  little bit more there, if we come together a little bit more, you
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  know, look what we can be. So you try to say it in
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  a positive manager and keep the positive manners so that the message is inspiring rather
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  than we're not good enough. We got to do better. And certainly as
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  a coach sometimes it comes out, hey, that wasn't good enough even,
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  but it's to me it's always about not what you're not, but what you
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  are capable of being. Not what you're not right now, but where can
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  we get And that's that's our messaging. How we do in the offseason yourself
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  to recharge and kind of get ready for the season and put yourself in a
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  good frame of mind, not football wise, but just off the kind of
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  whatever I mean. I you know, I go out west and see family,
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  and I go to the mountains. You know, the mountains are where
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  I like to be if I'm not here, So I go to the mountains.
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  That clears your mind and everything I don't know if anything ever clears my
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  mind, but it helps, It certainly helps. Yeah, I'm thinking about
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  Takuan and his performance in terms of recovery from injury and just getting up to
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  kind of playing speed. Well, I think I'm I'm I'm encouraged. You
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  know, it came out here the first day. Really he did some things
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  in spraying um and he didn't show any any residual effects from the surgery of
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  the injury. I think he's worked very, very hard. You know,
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  it's a young man. He's been through a lot, and uh, you
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  know, you you fight for the starting job and you get hurt in the
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  second series and you miss the whole season. That's not easy. And then
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  someone comes in and takes your place and leads your team to a bowl game.
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  And then your coaches go out and they bring in a grad transfer or
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  a transfer that's that's played a lot. And the guy never blinks. You
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  know, he just has a resilience about him. He has a great mindset.
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  I never seen anything bother him, you know, I think the only
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  time I've ever seen him down was, uh was that the twenty four hours
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  after his injury. And uh, other than that, it's like I said,
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  you know, he looks forward. You know, you guys asked the
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  kind of questions he looks forward and what's the next challenge, and how can
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  I accept that challenge? How can I how can I reach my goals?
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  And it's it's great to be around people like that. You know, it
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  makes this job fun, it makes it worthwhile. That's not all the keys
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  for you for the offense. In terms of improving this year, it can
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  go to the last year. I think that, you know, we run
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  the ball. We ran the ball well. We have to We have to
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  get better there, obviously, and become more consistent running the football. But
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  I think that, you know, everyone probably knows that just becoming efficient and
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  consistent in our past game is what's going to help us. I feel like
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  we've added talent and experience and to the receiving room, and I think the
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  tight end room as well. And I believe that the guys that were here
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  have taken a step up. You know, it's good to see cam Ross
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  back out here and healthy. And I think that the quarterbacks and the work
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  that they did with the receivers in the offseason on their own, I think
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  that will certainly help us. But staying healthy, running the ball consistently,
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  and then certainly taking a big step up in our past game. First day,
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  first day. But for somebody who probably don't really take a day off,
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  feel like the first day for you, it's we're talking about that during
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  practice. Is that you know, in the old days, and I'm I'm
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  a little I've been around a way a while, the first day of practice
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  was different because you would go a long time without seeing your players, and
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  we see them all the time. You know, they're always working, So
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  it doesn't feel like the first day. We said, it just feels like
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  the next step, you know, and I think that that's exciting. You
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  know. It's we're not restarting, you know, we're just taking the next
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  step as a program and as a team. And it's a different it's a
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  different way to look at it for me than what I'm used to looking at
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  it as So I appreciate our players like I appreciate the work they did in
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  the offseason. And you know, my office looks out over the indoor facility,
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  and uh, you know, I'm not allowed to sit there and watch
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  them practice, but I mean there's a window, right and so I mean
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  I might glance out, and it's very rare that there's not kids out there
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  working like we had guys out there the last few days on their own with
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  their shoulder pads and helmets on going through drills on their own. And you
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  know, when you're a coach, those are the types of things that inspire
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  you when you see your team so anxious to get better and so yeah,
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  it's just the next step till other receivers a minute ago just haven't just chief,
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  you know, back here working with the guys, watching the energy out
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  here today, let's talk about the element heads, you know, to your
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  program. I think he just adds tremendous credibility. He has a passion for
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  Yukon and Connecticut football. He was a really good player he played in the
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  league. The players respect him. He's very understated. You know, you
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  got to lean in to listen to him. I think that he immediately commanded
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  the respect of that room and just the workman like attitude that they show today.
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  That's not an easy group to coach. Sometimes the dbs and the receivers
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  a lot of time or they're kind of like the Ferraris, you know,
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  a little bit high strung at times and Having a personality like like Kashif on
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  offense and Dalton on defense, I think really helps us get work done and
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  not waste energy on things that don't matter. But I'll tell you what,
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  I love having him on this staff. I love the fact that he's back
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  here at his alma mater. You know, we what we're trying to do
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  is populate this staff with people that are passionate about Yukon and passionate about Connecticut
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  football. And he just adds to He adds tremendous value. How much how
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  much have you wondered about or talked about everything going on in conference realignment?
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  I know everything you're doing. I was a team specific, but as the
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  coach of an independent program. How much mental energy to vote to certain possibilities
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  rumors? You know, I've tried to limit the energy I spend on it
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  because I can't control it. But you know, I'd be lying if I
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  didn't say that's you know, it's back here percolating a little bit because there
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  are things happening and there is so much uncertainty. I think that today for
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  me, you know, I flipped the switch to it's all about twenty and
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  twenty three, and I haven't really thought about it today, but yesterday I
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  thought about it a little bit. You know, I'm like anybody, I'm
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  gonna jump on Twitter and you see the rumors and and you know, I
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  might know a little bit more than some of these people that are saying some
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  things, and so you know, you want to I want to hit the
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  comment and say you don't know what you can't do, obviously, but I
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  think it's exciting. I think there's some great possibilities out there. I've stated
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  this publicly that I think that, you know, if we have the opportunity
• 13:01
  to enter Power five conference, that it not only helps football, but it
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  helps this athletic department. And most importantly, it helps our student athletes because
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  it gives them more resources, um and more more options and a greater platform.
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  And I say that understanding how attached the people here are to the Big
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  East, you know, in the passion for basketball. But you know,
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  I think when I when I look at it purely as a football coach,
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  I say, of course, we want to be in a Power five,
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  But I also take that hat off and look at it from the perspective of
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  I'm an employee of the University of Connecticut. Um, I think it'd be
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  great for our for our our athletic department, our university, and you know,
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  I think it obviously would require some transition in the thought process of some
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  of our fans that are so emotionally attached to the Big East and going to
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  Madison Square Garden. And I mean, how can you discount sixteen national championships
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  basketball? You have to pay respect to that, and I think we do.
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  But I just feel like, you know, for us to football program
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  and us as an athletic department in the university, it's it's if we get
• 14:05
  that opportunity, it's a you got to you gotta take it. You know,
• 14:09
  you gotta take it. And I think that we'd all look back in
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  a few years and every sport would benefit from it, Every student athlete on
• 14:16
  this campus would benefit from it, every fan would benefit from it. But
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  it would just take a little transition in the way the way we think.
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  Because how about the transfer portal. There's been some take there about whether or
• 14:26
  that's a good thing, bad thing. You kind of built up the program
• 14:28
  last year with it, and then we saw this year people leave the transfer
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  portal and the nil would you like to see regulation do you like the current
• 14:35
  format With your take, Uh god, I haven't given it much thought lately
• 14:39
  because it's kind of over for us. With regards to the portal, I
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  think that there's certainly some real positives and I think there's some some some dangers.
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  You know. The positives are as as a team, you can quickly
• 14:52
  improve depth, you can add, you can add experienced players, you can
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  add players that are more physically developed in freshmen. I think that it's it
• 15:01
  can be dangerous and that if you're building a culture, sometimes the portals like
• 15:07
  speed dating, you know someone's really attractive to until you get to know them
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  better, and then maybe they're not as attractive. And when you're recruiting high
• 15:13
  school players, you get to know them when they're very young, you know
• 15:16
  their families. Well, it's a long drawn out process. Before they sign
• 15:18
  with you, do you have a better feel for how they're going to fit
• 15:22
  into the culture you're trying to building, and from the player perspective, you
• 15:24
  know, the ability to improve their their position in terms of building their professional
• 15:31
  career. I think it's a positive, but I think the danger is is
• 15:35
  that all of a sudden, you know, you see so many kids that
• 15:37
  go into the portal and they don't find a home, and I think that,
• 15:41
  you know, that's dangerous. So I think it's working right now for
• 15:46
  the most part. I think that the you know, the NCO continue to
• 15:50
  tweak it. The NIL it's a reality. It's where we are. I
• 15:58
  think for us, I can't worry about what other people do for us.
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  The most important thing is that we do it responsibly. You know, we
• 16:03
  have some collectives that are working with our student athletes and here at Yukon,
• 16:07
  what we try to do is tied to a greater good, a better bigger
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  cause, you know, community service, things like that. You know.
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  The one thing I think it's important to avoid is just creating entitlement, you
• 16:19
  know, like I deserve that money, now you have to you have to
• 16:22
  go earn it, because that's the reality of life. We all know that
• 16:25
  we're all working people, So just teaching the right lessons at this age is
• 16:29
  important. So there's a danger there, but there's also a positive. You've
• 16:33
  talked about some of the challenges that I'm with being independent in recruiting and things
• 16:37
  like that, But how would you assess the group that you're bringing in this
• 16:38
  year from the portal in from the high school class. It's been It's a
• 16:41
  good group, you know. I think I think that it was. I
• 16:45
  don't want to say it was easier to recruit, because recruiting is not easy.
• 16:47
  It's a grind. It's a process, you know, and you have
• 16:48
  to really you have to. You have to stay on it constantly. But
• 16:52
  our ability to attract the eyes and ears of of of better players was certainly
• 17:00
  enhanced, you know, this year. But we still heard the same thing
• 17:06
  with certain guys. You know, we love it here, We love the
• 17:07
  people, we love the facilities. Boy, this place is so different than
• 17:11
  I ever thought it would be. But I've got this Power five offer,
• 17:15
  you know, and not to regress, but you know, if we're in
• 17:18
  Power five, we're not going to hear that anymore. And I think that
• 17:21
  will help us. But I think you look at this field, the field
• 17:23
  were on right now. You go into in Burton Shankman, and these are
• 17:27
  top flight facilities. You guys have been around the country. I've been around
• 17:30
  the country. These are great facilities. And then more importantly, it's some
• 17:34
  people in the facilities I think make it. And not just the football facilities,
• 17:37
  but the athletic facilities in this campus, it's gorgeous. So recruiting is
• 17:42
  getting and I want to using the word easier is not to right. It's
• 17:47
  just we're attracting maybe more talented players. What do you think are the next
• 17:52
  incremental steps of progress for Jackson? Metchell has been so good for you,
• 17:56
  How will he be even better now? Well, he knows the scheme now
• 18:00
  after a year. You know, I think for everybody last year it was
• 18:02
  a new scheme offensively and defensively. And so when you're learning something new,
• 18:06
  that creates a little bit of hesitation. It just does. Even if you're
• 18:08
  an instinctive player like Jackson and a smart player like Jackson, and a dedicated
• 18:14
  guy who's going to study his tail off, there's still just a you know,
• 18:17
  just a just a slight hesitation. And now he's doing the same things
• 18:21
  over and over and over and over and over, and he's doing a high
• 18:23
  level and so I think that'll just you know, if that gives him the
• 18:26
  and she needs to make a play that maybe he didn't make last year,
• 18:30
  that's how it's going to help him. You know, he's an incredibly hard
• 18:33
  worker. This is very important to him. He's a great leader, he's
• 18:37
  a great teammate. He's a helvid player, and if he can feel comfortable
• 18:42
  doing what he's doing so that's just instinctive reactions, then then he's going to
• 18:48
  be that much better than he is, which is pretty darn good already