Latest / Coaches Corner / Segment 3 - UConn FB Show 8-24

Transcript

Segment 3 - UConn FB Show 8-24 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are back. Jason Candell with US a college football coach.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You show during the break we were talking about altitude.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I don't know how I got into that, but anyway,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: it has to do with the schedule.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Coach.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: You gotta go to Wyoming, you gotta go to Air Force.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: They're both over six thousand feet above sea level. That
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: is a major challenge because we're going to talk about
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the schedule here for a few minutes, but those are gonna.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Be tough ones.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's a that's a variable that you
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: don't get every weekend. Obviously, you know, we we've we've
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: had a couple of these trips in my career. B Yu, Nevada, Wyoming,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Colorado State to a certain extent, is a factor there.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Washington State's a little bit of a factor with that.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: You know, it's just a you gotta handle the trip
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: and then you got to handle manage the guys leading
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: into it, you got to handle them during it, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: then you got to you got to maintenance them on
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the back end of it too. So you have a
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: good plan on what that looks like and how that
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: plays itself out. You gotta make sure you've got really
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: good depth that some of the positions that are you know,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: that player volume gets really high and that you know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: that workload, you know, could really start to show up.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: So yeah, but every college football team has road games
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: they don't look forward to and that's just part of
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: and that again, that's another variable. That's the beauty of
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: what we do. So we gotta we're gonna play well,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: and we've got to put a plan together to go
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: out and handle the elements and you know, put our
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: best foot forward.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: So a decade in the Mid American Conference, you have
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: regular opponents that are rivalries really all over the place.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Uh, you get Miami of Ohio.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: This year, but you play a schedule as an independent,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: you and Notre Dame, basically the only.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Independence in the country.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: What are the motivations that you're gonna use with these guys.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Are you're gonna just take it week to week. You're
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: gonna say, let's play Maryland next week, Well, let's beat them.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, you don't have that conference thing. That's kind
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of I don't know, it's an extra motivation somehow.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that, Look, everybody chose to either stay
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: here or they chose to come here, right it's your one,
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: and they made that choice.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I made that choice.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: And after we made the choice, nobody said, hey, you
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: know what, you're not in a conference. So all the
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: things were on the table before anybody decided that this
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: is what they wanted to do. And I think what
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: we made a commitment to each other to do is
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: to be the best version of ourselves each and every day.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: So you know, whether twelve games are in the Mid
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: American Conference or in the Big Ten or an independent schedule,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I want to see the twelve opportunities we get to
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: play to be a byproduct of our work that we've
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: put in the days that there's not a football game,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: and then from there we're going to earn some other
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: opportunities after that to go play in the postseason. So
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: that would be the goal. That's how we're going to
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: approach it. You know, you only get so many of
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: these opportunities as a young person, and you know, and
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: really as a coach, to be honest with you, so
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: you know, we're going to do what we can do, no
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: matter who's on that schedule, no matter where that game is,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: to put a really good product on the field that
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: you know that we're proud of and that makes our
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: fan base proud and makes this institution problem.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: And the home games, you're the only school in the
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: country group of six playing three power foward teams at home.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: You got UNC, you get Syracuse.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And someone else.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I can't remember who's the other one, Maryland Maryland of
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: course week two. So the home games are going to
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: be challenging, They're going to be road marks a little
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: bit early on, it seems to me.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you're going to get the coch answer.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not really looking forward to anything, but
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: you know, making sure this week is a really good
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: one and then get to game one and then figure
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: it out from there. But yeah, I mean, those are
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: those are great marks to have on the schedule at home.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's I think that's a testament to David Benedict,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: his crew and their their team and you know, domin
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: all the work that those guys put in to make
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: sure that our fan base has, you know, a really
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: good opportunity to see it, to see a really fantastic game.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: But I think that there's not any games on that
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: schedule that everybody would look and be like, oh man,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I want to go to that one, Like,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: why wouldn't you want to see James Madison play? Why
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: wouldn't you You know, like there's a lot of really
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: good games on that schedule. So yeah, I think that's,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: like I said, a testament to our administration, and it's
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: an exciting time for our team and those games maybe
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: you know, they may get the players up a little
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: bit more than the other one, but once the ball's
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: kicked off, they're all the same.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: You now, as a head coach in twenty twenty six,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: has to put a roster together almost entirely different year
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: to year. So far of the people you brought in,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: you brought a lot of guys from Toledo, but guys
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: from West Virginia, all over the place. How many guys
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: have surprised you when you actually saw them in person
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: because you didn't get a chance to see a lot
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: of these guys in person, you know, the Toledo guys.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, some of these other players.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: All of a sudden, they're in uniform and they're in
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: your colors and they're on your practice field.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very unique time, one transfer portal for the first
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: time ever. I'd be the best year to take a
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: job in January, you know. But but yeah, I mean,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: once you got through that part of it, you know,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: there was it was speed dating for a while there.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: It was you know, fifteen or sixteen kids on campus
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: a day, you know, around the clock, week after week.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: But I think I think our guys did. Our guys,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: as in our staff, did a really good job of
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: staying organized, staying on top of what we were really
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: looking for. There was a there wasn't much deviation from hey,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: this is who fits us as a human being first,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: and then from there, let's let's try to make sure
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: that yeah, he is bigger, stronger, faster, right, you know.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: And I think that if you get people that are
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: like minded in the building together, then I think you
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: have a real chance. There was a really good core
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: of really good Yukon people that stayed and made that
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: decision to stay. I feel like there was a really
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: good core group of Toledo players that chose to and
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: that group of people really meshed really really well together.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: And I think from there, so if you were an
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: outside guy and you weren't in one of those two groups,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: life was a little bit easier on you because there
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: was a mass there to teach you how to how
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: this would go and how this would work. So there
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: was local knowledge of the program. There was a you know,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: a good sounding board of Hey, what's this coaching staff
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: look like and how does the head coach operate and
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: what is that going to be like? And when that
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: merged together, we've been rolling ever since. And I didn't
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I felt like that that process, you know, could have
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: taken a lot longer than what it has. I feel
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: like we have a pretty you know, connected football team
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: for the circumstances that we are under. I mean, you're
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: talking sixty five plus new players, you know, in sixteen
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: or seventeen freshmen, twenty four or five commitments in next
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: year's class, and we recruited one hundred players and six months,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: seven months. I mean, I don't this has never been
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: done in college football before. So you know, now you
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: got them all there, how do you get them to
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: stay connected, how do you get them to be selfless
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: rather than selfless rather than selfish? And how do you
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: get them to buy into the bigger the bigger cause?
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: And I think that's that's that's everybody's task right now
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: in college football.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Developing chemistry.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Can you do that in training camp or do you
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: have to get in live games and find out how
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: you play when I'm next to you in a given moment.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that you can do that
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: in training camp, but I think you that is an
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: everyday process. And if that's something that you say, Hey,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: we start camp on August fourth, and by the way,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: we have to be together. You're eight months behind that started.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: You know, from meeting number one in January. You better
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: know your teammates, You better know the people that you're
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: going to interact with in the building. You better you
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: know understand that the space that you have is yours,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: but it's also a shared space by everybody else in
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: this building, and that we have to stay connected because
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: it's you know, it's ultimate team game, you know. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: you hit a bad shot in golf, you you smack
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: your hip and some guys drop another ball and hit
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: another one into the same spot. You're the player you're
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: playing against is happy that you hit the ball out
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: of bounds. Here, you make a bad play and you
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: affect ten other people on every play. So you know,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: this is a real life lesson of your consequences of
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: your actions not only affect you but it affects a
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: lot of other people too, so you have to have
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: an understanding of that.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, if you're playing in a match in golf
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: and you miss a three footer and you're my partner,
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I'm upset because I'm letting you down.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So yeah, match play, match play. Okay, all right, Jason
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: kandle with us. We're back.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: We're going to get to the nuts and bolts of
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the roster, some names, some numbers. It's all coming up
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: next on the Yukon Football Coaches Show.