Latest / Coaches Corner / Football HC Jim Mora on the Rob Dibble Show Jan 7

Transcript

Football HC Jim Mora on the Rob Dibble Show Jan 7 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks for making time for us.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, thanks for making time for me. Ben, It's been crazy.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I bet I can only imagine a.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Whole new world of college football.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask you a little bit about that.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: I'm in this new world that you're embarking on. But
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: uh Man, great season, first and foremost before we get started.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Super proud of you. I just want to say.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: I'm not you should have been undefeated.
• 0:25
  Speaker 5: I just want to say I was screaming at least
• 0:30
  Speaker 5: six wins, at least a bullsey. I was fighting the
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: masses for you at the beginning of the year, coach,
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: and you made me proud.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Well, we had a chant I hate to ever say
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we could have, but we had a chaan at eleven,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: which is you know that'll stay with me, that'll eat
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: me alive all off season. Oh yeah, game, wait for
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: us game game? Oh god, you know, if we just
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: did a little bit better in a couple of.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Hey, what are my chances of bringing some high school
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: kids up to watch you guys practice?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: As long as it's an open period, than you always can.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: You know, the recruiting calendar is so strict, but if
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: it's called a quiet period or an open period, you can.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: You can do that anytime you want. Okay, and you
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: guys are always welcome.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, that my friends. His son's a quarterback at
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Fairfield Prep.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: We have John Morris from faild Field Prep. We have
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: a field for prep guy.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: So, and and he is like he knows more about
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: Yukon football than anybody have ever met.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: He teaches us about the portal and everything.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: I had no idea about some of your players, and
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: so he was telling me everything.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: He and he know he's not big enough to ever
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: be like maybe a college quarterback, but he wants to
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: be a coach. So it's more more seeing what you're doing.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: You need to send them to a therapist.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Hey, listen some of my baseball guy, I got a
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: kid that pitches at Lincoln University and he knows he's
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: not going to go pro, and he's like, well, how
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: do I get into coaching? So he's going to help
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: me coach in the summer. So these kids are great.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have amazing student assistants here that are trying
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to get into coaching, and they work in equipment and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: then they come up and they sit in our meetings
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and then they're given signals. During games, and it's it's been.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: It's really incredible to see like their passion to this
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: thing and and their help is amazing. I mean they're
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: like the unsung heroes of this program. The student assistant.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: That's awesome.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: You ready to go, sir? Yeah?
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's just start with you know, have have you
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: had any time to I know, you're recruiting and you're
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: you're onto the next year and stuff like that already,
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: but have you had any time to kind of look
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: back and process the season?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit. You know, you're right, it hits
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: you right in the face the next season because of
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: this portal and recruiting and uh, you know, you're recruiting
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: your own players recruiting other players. But we've had a
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: chance to, you know, reflect a little bit, and we're
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: proud of the progress we made, but there's really no
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: illusion to where we want to be. You know, we
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: all aspire to win ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen games eventually,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and that's what motivates us. But it's nice to see
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: some progress. Finally, I thought that the way we enter
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: the seasonast UNC was probably as true to who we
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: are as a football team as we played all year
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: besides that kickoff return for a touchdown. It was a
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: pretty darn You never play a flawless game, but we
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: played a very complete game as a team, and so
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that made me happy.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: I thought you guys were definitely on point that day
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: on defense and all season long. The way some of
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: these kids we didn't know a lot about the beginning
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: of this year, this year developed into superstars.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Some of the ones we know, we're huge.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Jelani Stafford fans, really fans of everyone on that defensive front.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Toy f I mean to Brown turned some heads all year.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Ronte Jones is a superstar on our airwaves. He loves
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: to tell he's great. Listen, but just talk about that defense,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: in that brotherhood that you've kind of cultivated over the
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: last three years, and some of those names and how
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: much they mean to the program.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Well, the guys that you mentioned specifically Ronte and Jilani
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: and you know, I throw gallon there in two. What
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: you love about those guys is the way they've stuck
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: with it here and they've been through some pretty tough
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: times and for them to go out with a nine
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: win season and a Bowl win against an ACC team
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: is big because They've been the backbone of this thing
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: and they could have pulded their panton left and they didn't.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: So you know, we got to continue to honor them
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: by the way we play. And we're going to miss
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: those guys. I mean, just you know, they were they
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: were culture builders, they were huge to this. I got
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to give Matt Brock and the defensive staff just a
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: tremendous amount of credit for coming in. And you know,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: once I fired that other defensive coordinator from last year,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: things seemed to say, yeah, me, seems things team to
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: take an uptick. So I'm going to give myself credit
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: for recognizing that that OLDBC stuck and getting a new
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: one in here. And Matt just did a great job,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and those guys bought into what he was was presenting
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: in terms of our system. The assistant coaches did a
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: great job, but it always comes back to the players,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: and it always comes back to their commitment and their
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: selflessness and their toughness and their belief in what we
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: were doing, their belief in each other and themselves. And
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: we played about as well as you can play defensively
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: against UNC considering you know, we were missing Dalmont. You
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: know we were missing Langston hardy, you know, and we
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: were still able to play a good game. So I'm
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: really proud of those guys.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Talking to Jim Moore Junior, the head coach of Yukon Football,
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: I actually took a chance and drove up on buses
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: with the fan base for the Fenway game. So it's
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: four hours of listening to the fans, which I'm not
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: a good fan by the way. I'm actually playing in
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: the major leagues and I don't like to watch anything.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: I want to play. Yeah, they were so excited. I
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: can't even put it into words what it was like
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: to sit. I was on the fifty yard line up
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: under the grand stands, and having played on that field,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: having you know, watched years and years and years, I
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: thought the coolest thing on the bus right up was
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: seeing that you got an extension. I before the game
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: even started, I was already pumped. I was telling people
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: on the bus and stuff, and you know, people couldn't
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: be more excited that you've stuck with this program, like
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: Dan Hurley coming back and not taking the Lakers job.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Things like that.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: You have no idea how pumped up the people are
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: for the coming years of yukun football.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm equally excited. I'll tell you this. It was
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: a magical experience being on that field. It was you know,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I've been to baseball games. Obviously you've played on the field,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: but I've been to games there. But you know, on Thursday,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: they took us behind the scenes and so when guys
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: were hitting in the batting case behind the Green Monster,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: kind of all the enters of of the ballpark, they
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: had baseballs and gloves down there, Guys were throwing around,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: it was the lights were on. It was really special.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: And then during the game, you know, looking up and
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: just seeing Thinway Park and home play was cool. But
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the best part, honestly was that was the best crowd
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that I can remember in a long time in my career.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: It was just really cool to feel the energy from
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Yukon fans, you know, and we feel it at the Rent,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: but it was just different because it was it was packed.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, the place was packed, you know, and they
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: seemed to be a lot closer and it just I
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: don't know, man, it was it was special. If we
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: can create that energy at the Rent on Saturdays, it's
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: gonna be tough to beat us. Now we've been pretty
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: good at home two of the three years. You know,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: we've done five and one and six and one. That
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: second year we weren't so good. But that energy and
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: that building from the Yukon fans that day, I'm going
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: to tell you it had a major impact on our players.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: You could just feel these jews coming out of the
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: stands and our guys tapped into it. It was awesome.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: We're trying to get that same feeling at the Rent
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: next year every Saturday that Yukon Football is playing home
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: as a mission for our show. Hopefully that that place
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: is a lot more crowded than it was even this year.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: I thought we had some good crowds, but still it
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: could be a lot better than what it was. Coach,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: take us through your world now moving forward, like this
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: recruiting session in this particular summer has got to be
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: bonkers more than any other year in college football, with
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: the NIL, with the transfer portal, with just the basic
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: recruiting of the old school, high school senior. I take
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: us through your world a little bit of just what
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: you're dealing with in the world of ABC's the college
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: sports always becruiting.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: As it phones, is it emails?
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Do you have like one phone taped your head while
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: you're making some kind of visit somewhere, like, how are
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: you doing it all already?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Here?
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: We're not done officially with the college football season.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Well right now we're one hundred invested in the portal
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: and trying to you know, replace some of the great
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: players that left us. So it's all about that right now.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Starting in a few days, we got to go out
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: and start to you know, attack high school recruiting. But
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: right now we have to focus our energy on the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: portal and uh, and that's what we're doing. So it
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: never really stops, you know with the nil. Uh, it's
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: become a little more business, not necessarily as personal with
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: the with the portal guys, but we're trying to be
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: very selective and who we bring in because we've built
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: something here in terms of the environment and the expectations
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: and the selflessness and like you used the word brotherhood earlier,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: that commitment to the team, and we got to make
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: sure that we protect that with the men that we
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: bring in through the portal. So it's we're talking to
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: high school guys, but we haven't been out seeing them
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: at the end, you know, the later part of January
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: we'll be out seeing high school kids, especially in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: in the New England area and maintaining those relationships. But
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what it's. It's it's a challenge, but
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: it's also fun at the same time. And we were
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: getting a lot more people respond to us and we
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: having the pass just because they've seen that we are
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: making progress and our guys are going on and having
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: some success in the NFL Eric Watson and Christian Haynes
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: last year, you know, going on and doing some good things.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: So that's very helpful for us.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: I was watching the FCS Championship last night and the
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: line of Sandy or South Dakota. Every guy was six
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: ' five. Was in North Dakota. South North Dakota every
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: guy was six five, three or four. And I was like,
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: it was insane.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: How big they are? What you have?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: You guys ever scout FCS and even Division two or
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: three schools for talent.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Oh sure, but they have to be in the portal,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: you know. And I don't know how. You know, when
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: those guys doing the portal, we evaluate them. Listen, there's
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: good football players everywhere. And I think one of the
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: great things about the portal is it gives players a
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: chance that developed late to maybe go to a school
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: that they've always dreamed of going, or playing at a
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: different level than maybe they were capable of playing at
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: coming out of high school. So, I mean, our eyes
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: are always open. You certainly can't contact those guys, and
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't do that, but uh yeah, we're always looking
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: for good football players and you're going to find them
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: at every level and at different stages of the development.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: One of the great things about the portal is that
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: you you get to see players play against, you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: like players guys that you're you know, in high school.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: There's a wide there's a big gap between the really
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: good ones and the not so good ones, and so
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: the level of competition is sometimes hard to gauge, where
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: when you're working the portal, you you kind of know
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: the level of competition that those you're evaluating are going against,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: and so that helps you make an evaluation of that
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: player for your program.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: We've gotten some good ones too in the last couple
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: of years. I would say that wide receiver on the
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: outside was a really good score. Last year, Skyler Bell
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: a little bit of an emotional roller coaster, at least
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: for us as fans with Skyler of is he going
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: to be on the team? Is he not going to
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: be on the team. He ended up playing in the
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: bowl game. He went into the portal. Now he's back
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: out of the portal. What was that like for you
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: as a coach? And I haven't talked to any coaches
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: that have had to deal with this yet, You're the
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: first one that I've spoke to just for you going
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: through all of that with just that one particular player.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: And I know that's one of many circumstances, but Skyler's
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: a big one.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: How was that conversation and what was that like for you?
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: It was great. Skyler's a really classy young man, straightforward, honest,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: very mature, and you know, we had a discussion after
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: the season, and he wanted to see what was out there,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: so he went in the portal. But he also made
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: a commitment to playing the bowl game, and he took
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: some trips, and he took his time, and he really
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: thought things out. He weighed all of his options and
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: all of his offers, and he decided the best thing
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: to do is come back here. Because of the way
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Skyler handled it, had he left, had he given him
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: a hug, and said, go after a pal, you know
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: what I mean. And I kind of feel that way
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: about all our guys. We're losing some good players to
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: the portal who feel like maybe there's just a better
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: opportunity out there for them on the field and financially.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: You know, when you lose a player to a school
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: like Michigan, which fortunately we didn't with Skyler, or you
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: lose a guy to a wake for us, or you
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: lose a guy to a UNC and those schools are
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: able to pay them double the money that we can.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: It leads, but we're in the fight. To me, that
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: indicates progress. And I'll tell you this, Like you know,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: in this nil day, having a guy like Mike Burton
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: on our side, and you guys remember he played here
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: in this buildings named after his family and he's kind
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: of running our collective. It's huge because he's so committed
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: and we're able to do some really good things because
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: of a commitment like Mike and our players, guys like Skyler.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: You know, he comes back because of a guy like
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Mike and the way Mike treated him through this whole
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: process and how honest he was about what we could
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and couldn't do for him, and how certain we were
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and how how much integrity Mike handle this with. So
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: right now we're doing a really good job of working
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: together and trying to keep the guy everyone, every significant
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: player we can. But if they think they're going to
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: go somewhere, we're also going to try to help them
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: get to the spot that they want to be and
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: where they can be successful. Uh.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: My final question is down to the four teams in
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: the college football playoff Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, Texas. Uh,
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: and those two games? Who do you like?
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I don't even know who plays each other? Who plays.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Notre Dames playing Penn State and Ohio State's playing Texas?
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Oh Man, Okay, Well, first of all, I like all
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: four coaches. I know them all, and I think they're
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: all awesome. Uh. I grew up a Notre Dame fan. Uh,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to answer you. How about that? I
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: want I'd like let's see overtime. Let's get like a
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: two games that go into like six overtime. That'd be awesome.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Hey, well we'll end it right there. Coach, thank you
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: so much for your time, and again, like Ben said, uh,
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: everybody in New England's proud of what you've done uh
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: and and and bringing respect back to Yukon football. We
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: we appreciate and love you for it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you well, Thank you guys. You take care okay, excellent,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: We will we will.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: Man, good sir, Thank you.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Jim.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I got a meeting right now with a portal guy,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: so he's coming in.